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Castaway Paradise is almost Animal Crossing on iPad

For a long time, industry commentators have suggested that Nintendo should bring their franchises to tablets and smartphones.

However, with Mario Kart 8 pushing game and console sales it seems that there has been method in Nintendo's perceived madness.

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This still leaves some particular genres Nintendo excels at absent on Android and iOS platforms. Happily, it seems that other developers are picking up the slack. One such title is Castaway Paradise from Stolen Couch games, that draws a lot from Nintendo's island life simulator Animal Crossing.

From the screen shots you can immediately see that it looks almost identical to the Wii and 3DS game. It even includes

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Animal Crossing staples like fishing, bug collection and a rich array of time limited items to decorate your home with.

Play it for longer though and you soon start to notice other similarities. Planting the correct foliage is essential to attract certain wildlife like in Viva Pinata. The home making in the game feels similar to designing homes in The Sims.

There are also farming mini-games like Harvest Moon.

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Having triedCastaway Paradise out last week and had a strong response from families and disbelieving fans of the original

Animal Crossing games, I approached Studio Head Eric Diepeveen to find out more about how the game came to be, and whether Nintendo were likely to issue a take-down request.

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Diepeveen spoke about the idea to create the game. "We thought to ourselves, what kind of game can we create that doesn't exist on iPhone and iPad platforms? Why wouldn't we make [an Animal Crossing] type game because there are millions of people who love those games but can't play them on PC, iPad or Android. So in 2012 we started development on Castaway Paradise."

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I asked whether this had drawn attention or criticism from Nintendo. "Nintendo is great, we showed them the game about two years ago and they immediately liked it. I can't speak for Nintendo because we have no affiliation to them, but if you look at games on 3DS, Gamecube and Wii there are a lot of Mario Kart clones all licensed by Nintendo. They love their IP and they will protect their IP but they are not threatened by other developers mimicking, or being inspired by their IP."

I asked Nintendo what its perspective was on the game but they declined to comment at this stage.

This made me wonder whether the fans of Animal Crossing may present a bigger challenge to get onboard. "The fans are great.

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Obviously they love Animal Crossing and are right that it is a great game. But we are not trying to create Animal Crossing 4, but a game inspired by it and The Sims and Harvest Moon."

The game is currently soft launched on iOS in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Vietnam. It will be getting a full release worldwide later this year as well as being planned for Steam and Android.

This made me wonder if it could come to the Vita. "We are often talking to Sony and the last time we showed it they were definitely interested." The game is developed on Unity so it wouldn't be an insurmountable amount of work to make that happen if there was enough desire demonstrated by that market.

Making money is obviously a driver for any developer. Stolen Couch Games has an interesting financial model. The game is free to play but offers a VIP subscription track that unlocks special items and makes progression easier. "Most players won't spend a dime. For a few dollars a month you get a lot of extra content. You also get a 20% discount on all items and unlimited water for farming. Each week you will get exclusive items."

Although this is slightly unusual I like the predictable aspect of this model. It means you very clearly know in advance how much you are spending rather than racking up more and more micro-transactions. I'd be keen at seeing this used in other games.

The game is still having features and items added on a daily basis and online play is also being considered. Special days will also offer limited edition items like those that pop-up in

Animal Crossing.

Diepeveen summarises the offering as "games as a service. We will continue to support this game for years to come. We constantly listen to feedback and improve the game. The map feature for example is something that was voted for by players."

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I ended our conversation by asking whether Castaway Paradise may leverage the "toys to life" genre with physical toys that unlock content like Skylanders, Disney Infinity or Amiibo. Again Diepeveen is thinking outside the box here, "we want to turn that upside down. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could press a button and we would 3D print your character and mail it to you."

Beyond its initial similarities to Animal Crossing, a fresh financial model, ongoing development and player led features make Castaway Paradise an intriguing proposition for both players and other developers. It deserves to do well.